urn:taro:utexas.blac.00221Magda Portal Papers, 1922-1989, 1994, 1999, 2008Benson Latin American CollectionUniversity of Texas Libraries, 2006Finding aid encoded by Kelly Kerbow Hudson, 2008Finding aid written inEnglish.Descriptive Summary
Portal, Magda, 1901-1989Magda Portal Papers1922-1989, 1994, 1999, 2008Spanish, English, French1986-28, 2011-22440716746 linear feetBenson Latin American Collection, The University of Texas at AustinPersonal papers of Magda Portal, a Peruvian author, poet, and political activist. The collection documents Portal's writing and involvement with several political parties including the Popular Revolutionary Alliance for America (APRA), Partido del Pueblo, and the Peruvian Aprista Party (PAP). The papers include correspondence from personal, political and literary figures; manuscripts, drafts and some published copies of her written works (monographs, plays, short stories, and poetry); newspaper clippings; a DVD video recording of an 1981 interview with Portal; as well as digitized correspondence and other files (e.g. photographs, drafts). Correspondents include Rómulo Betancourt, Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre, and Gabriela Mistral, among others.Biographical Sketch

María Magdalena Julia Portal was born in Lima, Peru on May 27, 1901 to working-class parents Pedro Pablo Portal and Rosa Moreno. As a girl Portal began to write poems, short stories, and novels. As a teenager she worked to support her economically troubled family, but attended class at night at the University of San Marcos. At the university she was exposed to new political and philosophical themes, ideas that would shape her writing and public life. Portal met and married fellow university student Federico Bolaños. The marriage did not last and she later fell in love with poet Reynaldo Bolaños, a brother of Federico, who went by the pen name Serafín Delmar. Their love affair continued through years of political imprisonments and exiles.

By 1923 Portal and Delmar became involved in political demonstrations, specifically against President Augusto B. Leguía. After the birth of daughter Gloria in 1925, they left Peru for Bolivia where they spent a year involved in leftist political newspapers and literature. After moving back to Lima, Portal began teaching at the Universidades Manuel González Prada and published the literary journal Trampolín. She also collaborated on José Carlos Mariátegui's journal Amauta and became involved with the group Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana (APRA). During this time she wrote and published her poetry in Una esperanza y el mar.

Because of her work with Mariátegui's supposed communist group, in 1927 Portal was arrested and exiled to Cuba and then deported to Mexico. She was joined in Mexico by Serafín Delmar and other Peruvian exiles including APRA party founder Victor Raúl Haya de la Torre. They formed a local Aprista committee and elected Portal secretary general. Over the next few years Portal traveled to Cuba, Puerto Rico, Colombia, and Santo Domingo representing APRA and its ideals. In 1930 she was incarcerated in Chile and, after being freed with the help of Chilean intellectuals, she returned to Lima to found PAP, the Peruvian Aprista Party. Through PAP Portal worked for women's rights, starting educational and political programs for women. She became the leader of the Feminine Sector of APRA's National Executive Committee and was in charge of organizing feminist groups throughout Peru. Portal also helped edit the party magazine Apra and published various political pamphlets and essays.

During the presidency of dictator Sánchez Cerro and his persecution of Aprista leaders in 1932 Portal was forced to go underground for some 16 months. Portal's mother and two sisters were imprisioned for 5 months in order to force them to reveal Portal's whereabouts. Serafín Delmar was arrested for his complicity in an assassination attempt on Sánchez Cerro and sentenced to twenty years in prison. In 1933 after the fall of the Sánchez Cerro regime Magda Portal reorganized the party as the national secretary of women's affairs. She published El Aprismo y la mujer or Hacía la mujer nueva. Portal herself was arrested in 1934 and sentenced to 500 days in Santo Tomás women's prison in Lima. During this period she composed many of the poems published in Costa sur and her novel La trampa.

After release from prison Portal continued her work for APRA for several years until leaving Peru again in 1939 with her daughter Gloria. She spent six years in Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay. In Chile Portal became involved in the Ministry of Education and the Association of Socialist Women. She earned the attention of Chilean socialist leader Salvador Allende as well as Venezuelan political figure Rómulo Betancourt. Magda Portal returned to Peru in 1945 and organized the First National Congress of Aprista Women in 1946, but personal tragedy put her political activities on hold when her daughter committed suicide in early 1947. Then in 1948 Peru's government took Portal and other APRA leaders into custody following an armed revolt. Although the military tribunal that followed in 1950 known as the Proceso del Potao aquitted her of charges, it also marked the end of her Aprista affiliation. She felt unsupported and deceived by APRA during the tribunal process, and she published ¿Quiénes traicionaron al pueblo? to declare her feelings publicly.

In the years that followed Portal devoted herself to her literary career. She published her only novel La trampa in 1956 and in 1966 published Constancia del ser, a compiliation from her earlier books of poetry and previously unpublished poems. From 1958-1971 Portal directed Fondo de Cultura Económica, a Mexican publishing company in Lima. In 1978 Portal ran for a seat in Peru's Constitutional Assembly representing the Revolutionary Action Socialist Party but was unsuccessful. She served as president of the Asociación Nacional de Escritores y Artistas from 1980 until 1986, and in June 1981 she was recognized at the Fourth Inter-American Congress of Women Writers for her political activism and literature. Magda Portal died on July 11, 1989 in Lima, Peru.

The original collection consists of the personal papers of Peruvian author, poet, and political activist Magda Portal. Materials date from 1922 to 1986 and measure 5 linear feet. The collection is arranged into three series: Correspondence, Written Works, and Collected Materials.

The first series, Correspondence, is arranged chronologically. This series contains letters to and from Portal to various political, personal, and literary figures in her life. Major correspondents include Rómulo Betancourt, Victor Raúl Haya de la Torre, and Gabriela Mistral. Series one also contains other collected correspondence not to or from Portal.

Series two, Written Works, contains manuscripts of various monographs, plays, short stories, and poetry by Magda Portal. Notable works include Constancia del ser, Flora Tristán, precursora, drafts of her autobiography Trazos Cortados, and stories for La Trampa. These works are arranged by genre. There are also transcripts of programs from Radio Escuela Experimental and Radio Teatro Para la Juventud arranged chronologically. Series two also includes various drafts of articles and essays which are arranged chronologically and by title. Finally, the bulk of Written Works are the many newspapers articles Portal wrote and published in the late 1970s and early 1980s. These articles are predominately arranged alphabetically by periodical title and chronologically thereunder.

Collected Materials, the third series, contains clippings, interviews, political party materials, printed materials, critical opinions, and written works by others. It is divided into 3 subseries: items related to APRA and affiliated political parties (i.e. Partido Aprista Peruano, Partido del Pueblo), collected materials about Magda Portal, and various collected materials. Many whole issues of Latin American periodicals collected by Portal have been separated from her papers and cataloged. A detailed list of these newspapers can be found in series three within the subseries in which they originally existed.

2011 Additions:

The 2011 additions to the Magda Portal papers include material from circa 1920s to 1980s (as well as some clippings from 1994, 1999 and 2008) and measures 1 linear foot. The addition to the collection is divided into three series: Correspondence and Other Digitized Files, Written Works, and Collected Material.

The paper originals of the Correspondence and Other Digitized Files series are housed in the Biblioteca Nacional del Perú (BNP). The digitized files received by the Benson Collection are titled "Carpeta" and numbered sequentially. The numbered order of the "Carpeta" was maintained at the Benson Latin American Collection. The files include correspondence with friends in Peru and abroad, notes and drafts of Potal's written works, biographical information (draft of autobiography and some vital records), as well as several "carpetas" of photographs.

The Written Works series contains published copies of various works by Magda Portal. Works include

Flora Tristán, precursora; Ciro Alegría, inédito; Hacía la mujer nueva; La mujer en el Partido del Pueblo; and La trampa. This series also includes a list of publications with written work by Portal.

The Collected Material series consists of periodicals with articles/interviews with and about Portal, newspaper clippings about Portal and/or events she was attending, as well as a video recorded interview of Magda Portal by Agnes Dimitriou and Francine Masiello of the University of California, Berkeley (June 26, 1981). In the interview, Portal reminisces about her formation as a poet, writer, and political activist in the 1930s.

Arrangement

The original collection is arranged into three series: Correspondence, Written Works, and Collected Materials.

The 2011 additions are arranged into three series: Correspondence and Other Digitized Files, Written Works, and Collected Materials.

Access Restrictions

Unrestricted.

Use Restrictions

Standard copyright restrictions apply.

Preferred Citation

Cite as: Magda Portal Papers, Benson Latin American Collection, University of Texas Libraries, the University of Texas at Austin.

Index Terms

The Magda Portal Papers are classified under the following Subject Headings in the University of Texas Libraries catalog:

Note: The paper originals of the digitized files in this series are housed in the Biblioteca Nacional del Perú (BNP). The original numbered order of the "Carpeta" at BNP was maintained at the Benson Latin American Collection.